The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In typical wellbore operations, various treatment fluids may be pumped into the well and eventually into the formation to restore or enhance the productivity of the well. For example, a reactive or non-reactive “fracturing fluid” or a “frac fluid” may be pumped into the wellbore to initiate and propagate fractures in the formation thus providing flow channels to facilitate movement of the hydrocarbons to the wellbore so that the hydrocarbons may be pumped from the well. In such fracturing operations, the fracturing fluid is hydraulically injected into a wellbore penetrating the subterranean formation and is forced against the formation strata by pressure. The formation strata are forced to crack and fracture, and a proppant is placed in the fracture by movement of a viscous-fluid containing proppant into the crack in the rock. The resulting fracture, with proppant in place, provides improved flow of the recoverable fluid (i.e., oil, gas or water) into the wellbore. In another example, a reactive stimulation fluid or “acid” may be injected into the formation. Acidizing treatment of the formation results in dissolving materials in the pore spaces of the formation to enhance production flow. It is common in all these types of operations to add further chemical components to treat the formation. In the case of proppant, scale inhibitors, filter cake remover, surfactant, gas hydrate inhibitors and other chemicals may be used.
To deliver and transport said chemical components downhole in the well, various well-known methods of providing or facilitating the delivery of chemicals are used. However, none of said methods allows an achievable controlled or sustained delivery of chemical components. Effectively, if slow or instantaneous release of chemical components downhole is well-known and achievable mostly of the time. Prior art solutions to deliver chemistry downhole in a sustained or controlled way are not optimum.
In parallel, optimized packing volume fraction has been used in past years for well cementing compositions to improve pumping abilities. Even if application for pumping other well treatment fluids was sought as that time too, commercial use was absent or limited. More recently, concept of optimized packing volume fraction has been used.